My views on the world of PR and pretty much everything else

Category: Random PR Thoughts

It doesn’t do to take yourself too seriously in the PR game, although lots of people do. Attend almost any convocation of PR folks and you will hear about the great strides the profession is about to make in being taken more seriously as a management function. The […]

The advent of social media has given rise to a plethora of acronyms that simplify the process of typing on a tiny keyboard. But every now and then I find myself having to Google an acronym because it is just not clear to me. LOL? I get that. […]

As I wrote this post over the Fourth of July holiday, it seemed fitting to recall the words of one of our nation’s Founding Fathers: “It is natural for man to indulge in illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth. For […]

This morning’s edition of PR Week – which, ironically, is a daily — brought the news that GE has launched the GE Artistry Series — a line of kitchen appliances designed to appeal to Millennials. How, I wondered, would one design a stove to make it more appealing […]

In my last post (http://wp.me/p35ZJ7-63 ), I included a link to a document that explains the concept of “completed staff work.” But I thought I would post the text here to make it easier. I am told that the original version of this essay appeared in the Army-Navy […]

Oddly enough, I was overlooked once again to serve as a commencement speaker this year. In fact, although I have been available most Spring weekends for the past few years, not one institution of higher learning (or lower, for that matter) has called upon me to make a […]

Historically, the advertising and editorial departments of news organizations are supposed to be walled off from each other. But that wall seems to be crumbling in a way we could not have imagined fifteen years ago. It may be unintentional, but it’s still a little weird. The other […]

There’s a post rocketing around Facebook from Ragan’s PR Daily (http://bit.ly/10ZgwEj) purporting to list the “ten signs you are an old-school PR pro.” As far as I can tell, it is being read and shared mainly by old-school PR pros. Anyway, I have reviewed the items on the list, […]

Thanks to the ups and downs of business cycles, most companies find themselves in the midst of constant change. Whether to meet or exceed the expectations of ravenous shareholders or just to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the enterprise (or both), companies are always looking for ways to […]

A PR agency I once worked for had a large chemical company as a client. One day, I was summoned to a meeting with one of the agency’s senior leaders, who asked if I would take over as the senior relationship manager for the client. The person who had been in that […]

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Are you up for a little game of “What if?” I am, after the remarkable news that the CEO of Wal-Mart has decreed that the chain will no longer sell handgun ammunition or bullets made for assault weapons. And Wal-Mart has gone even further, asking that customers in […]

Since I have an hour drive to school and back twice a week, I have become a regular podcast listener. One that I like very much is “Stay Tuned With Preet,” Preet being Preet Bahrara, former head of the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York. While he […]

This spring, I am teaching “Fundamentals of the Theory and Practice of Public Relations” to 32 students at Marist College. I recently invited Michael O’Brien of Ketchum to speak to the class about planning. Michael spoke eloquently on the subject, but I have to admit that […]

Today’s Wall Street Journal brings news of a trend in business to refashion job titles to make them more appealing to current employees and potential recruits. In place of “Customer Service Representative,” that person’s business card may say “Customer Service Ninja.” Who wants to be a Sales Representative […]

On the anniversary of the 1987 market crash, I have a message: An economic downturn is coming. And it’s overdue. Anyone who has worked through a recession (and in my career, I went through four) knows how devastating its effects are. Business starts to dry up. Clients disappear. […]

I’m not a big Twitter user. I have an account, but I rarely tweet. From time to time, I check my notifications because Twitter sends me an email telling me to. But I am fully aware that many people rely on Twitter almost exclusively to communicate, with […]

As we are confronted daily with the Trump Administration’s obvious disdain for the media and the truth in general, it’s instructive to look at a sad chapter in US history – one that has some potentially frightening parallels today. One hundred years ago, as President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly […]

When United Airlines gets tired of mugging its customers, they’ve always got their employees to batter. The latest news out of the Sears…er…Willis Tower (sorry, I still call 200 Park Avenue the Pan Am building) is that United’s executive brain trust tried to eliminate a longstanding performance […]

Over the years, several of the agencies at which I worked took on controversial clients. Whether it was Big Tobacco or the Fur Council or Big Pharma to name a few, the argument has always been that any client deserves representation. We help them tell their stories and […]

How many CEOs wish they could say that? (Answer: All of them.) How many CEOs actually would say that, even to themselves, let alone in an investor meeting? At least one. In September, that’s what came out of the mouth of Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines, […]